Luxury Lite: Starbucks Goes Instant

The Wall Street Journal has an article today on Starbucks' instant coffee. I recommend reading the article for the discussion of the whole experience of using a product, for example uncorking a bottle of wine. I think instant coffee from Starbucks is a terrible idea because it destroys the notion of the ritual of making coffee. I also recommend reading Seth Godin's book "All Marketers Are Liars", which explains the importance of having a story to tell about your product. Starbucks built a brand with one story, and now they are saying that story was wrong.